JK 1759 
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|L.essons in Americanism 

Martin J. Wade 


“Let reverence for the laws be 
breathed by every American mother 
to the lisping babe that prattles on 
her lap; let it be taught in schools, 
in seminaries, and in colleges; let it 
be written in primers, spelling books 
and in almanacs; let it be preached 
from the pulpit, proclaimed in 
legislative halls, and enforced in 
courts of justice. And in short, 
let it become the political religion of 
the nation.” 

Lincoln, 1837. 


Copyright, 1920 
By American Publicity Co. 






I A M ^ 


ICPO 


©CI.A56i649 


19 



DEDICATED 


ANNOUNCEMENT 

The sample Lessons in Americanism ’ ’ here presented, are in the 
form which Judge Wade suggests for publication in newspapers. The 
plan being, to publish a “Lesson’’ in each issue. The Preface in¬ 
cluded, of course, is only to be used in the publication of the Volume. 
In newspaper publication no order will be observed—the author be¬ 
lieving that it will be more convenient for production and publica¬ 
tion to have them appear as the particular publisher may desire. 

The Undersigned have acquired the rights for newspaper pub¬ 
lication in advance of publication of the “Lessons” in book form. 
The author reserves the right to publish in book form after a cer¬ 
tain number of “Lessons,” to be hereafter determined, have been 
published in regular course by a subscribing newspaper. Terms 
will be furnished for daily or weekly newspaper publications. 

American Publicity Company. 




LESSONS IN AMERICANISM 

**Lei us rescue the law from the realm of m}fster\} and superstition* 

(By Martin J. Wade) 

PREFACE 

These lessons in Americanism were not written in the quiet of the 
study, nor in the atmosphere of the library, nor do they speak in 
the learned phrases of the books. 

They are the result of the labor of odd moments during busy 
hours in court, or periods of reflection while traveling on dusty 
trains, and of hours snatched from rest’’ in the solitude of hotel 
life. 

They are not intended for the lawyer nor for the scholarly critic. 
They make no pretense to exactitude of expression, completeness of 
deflnition, nor to elegance of diction. My earnest aim has been 
toward simplicity. They are written for the common people”— 
the men, women and children who, in this country carry, in their 
hands and in their hearts the power of government. 

I have tried earnestly to rescue the law and legal relations from 
the realm of mystery and superstition. It is my purpose to arouse 
the spirit—to inspire faith and confidence in our country, as well 
as to develop the intellect. Patriotism, like religion, is a quality of 
the heart. Blind faith is better than halting skepticism; but a 
faith enlightened and sustained by intelligent understanding is 
a bulwark which will withstand the stress of every storm. 

This is a nation where the majority rules. What Gerald Brown¬ 
ing, who lives in a marble palace may think, is not of such great 
importance as are the ideas and the feelings of his ten servants. 
Each servant has a vote which equals, for good or evil, the ballot 
of his master. It is not sufficient that our educated” people shall 
know and feel the rights and duties of citizenship in this republic— 
it is absolutely essential that our ^'uneducated” millions shall keen¬ 
ly realize their privileges, their power, and their obligations. 

Power in this country does not depend upon blood or race or 
station in life. The governing power rests with the hod carrier, 
the sewer digger, and the toiler in the mill, as well as with the 
teacher, the lawyer, and the banker—^those who toil with the brain 
instead of with the hand. While it may safely be said that seventy- 
five percent of our people are "normally loyal” to their country. 



not twenty-five per cent of them (and this is a broad assertion), 
have any intelligent conception of the real relations which exist be¬ 
tween them and their government. They do not understand that 
without law there can be no liberty; that obedience to law is the 
one thing essential to preserve our national life; they do not fully 
appreciate that no law can go upon our statute books, and that no 
law can remain upon our statute books, except by the consent of 
the majority of the people. They talk of patriotism., but they do 
not realize that the highest expression of patriotism is willing sub¬ 
mission to duly constituted authority. 

I wonder, as I see the gross indifference of millions of our peo¬ 
ple to the affairs of the nation and of the state, how long it will 
be before the people learn that this nation cannot run itself; that 
it will be just as good as the people by earnest effort shall make it, 
or as bad as by indifference and inactivity they will permit it to be. 

The average man feels that the subject of government is for the 
^^statesman’^; that it is too big and too complicated for him to 
understand, and there is a vicious tendency to let the few do 
the thinking for the many. These lessons represent an earnest 
effort to get into the mind of the people the fact that the real essen¬ 
tial truths which form the foundation of, and the inspiration to, 
patriotic devotion, are few and simple. They are written in the 
hope that they may be a source of light and strength to the foreign¬ 
er, who in the night school is preparing himself for naturalization; 
to the farmer, who in hours of depression caused by crop failure 
or hog cholera, may be tempted to join the army of the discon¬ 
tented who attribute all the ills of life to the government; to the 
capitalist whose profits may be decreasing, while his pay roll may 
be advancing; to the laborer who, on his way home at night, may 
have listened to the soap-box orator who told him that ^^all workers 
are slaves’^; to the earnest seeker after social justice who is hope¬ 
less because of the assumed power of the ‘‘special interests;’^ to 
the women of the land now assuming new and grave responsibilities; 
to the children of the schools, the students in our colleges, and to 
every earnest soul who realizes, perhaps in a feeble way, something 
of what we owe to our country, to ourselves, and to our children, 
who wiU live their lives as we have lived ours—under the stars and 
stripes. 

I have used this ‘JLesson form” for sake of brevity, and especial¬ 
ly because it permits a direct answer to questions which trouble 


many earnest but doubting souls, who are too often led from the 
path of patriotism by the utterances of hopeless visionaries, vicious 
socialists, and defiant anarchists. 

In order that practical application may be made easier, I 
use many current expressions or incidents, and I have taken the 
liberty of quoting from many great Americans, whose words of 
wisdom illuminate and inspire. 

I insist that the solution of every government problem in this 
country can be solved by education. It cannot be done in a day, 
nor in a year. A disease, deep-seated and chronic usually demands 
a long course of treatment. But every day will show improvement 
if men, women and children, will only give a few minutes study 
each day to the fundamental principles of this great democracy. 

I most earnestly appeal to the women of the land to substitute 
in their study clubs—at least during these days of world reconstruc¬ 
tion, the fundamentals of social and national life, the rights, pow¬ 
ers and duties of citizens in a free country, for the always interest¬ 
ing, but far less important, study of Greek Architecture, Roman 
Philosophy, Browning, Shakespeare, Whitman or Poe. 

Knowledge is power Ignorance is not * ^ bliss and ** wis¬ 

domis not ** folly 


LESSONS IN AMERICANISM 

**Let us rescue the law from the realm of m\^ster}) and superstition' 

(By Martin J. Wade) 

“THEY DO NOT UNDERSTAND.” 

A few months ago I was riding in a car in a neighboring city. 
Two men, evidently from the middle walk of life, were sitting be¬ 
hind me, and I could not help hearing the following conversation- 
“Well, I see they arrested Bill for stealing a couple of hams:” to 
which his companion responded; “Yes, and I suppose he will go 
to prison; if he was a rich guy, there wouldn’t be any danger, but a 
poor devil don’t stand no show in the Courts.” The other agreed 
with him and they proceeded to discuss the subject and to “cuss” the 
Courts. I wanted to turn around and tell them they were gravely 
mistaken! I wanted to explain to them that the statement we often 
hear quoted, “If a man steals a loaf he goes to prison, and if he steals 
a railroad he goes to the United States Senate,” is a gross exaggera¬ 
tion,—^nay, a positive libel upon our institutions. 

I wanted to say to them, “Go down to the police court of your 
own city, and you will find that the arrests for minor offenses for 
the past year have averaged some forty-five each day; and then go 
to the records, and find Ijihat in ninety per cent of the cases, the; 
courts and the law have permitted the unfortunates to keep out of 
prison by the imposition of a nominal fine or the favor of a sus¬ 
pended sentence. I wanted to tell them that as a matter of fact out 
of the thousands of cases tried every day in this country that only 
in a very small per cent (I would say less than one per cent) substan¬ 
tial justice is not administered. I wanted to cry out in protest 
against the source from which the misinformation comes, which is 
conveying these dangerous ideas to the American people—the yel¬ 
low newspapers and magazines, and other purveyors of falsehood 
and scandal. 

Every day it becomes more apparent that if this republic is to 
endure something must be done to inspire a higher regard for law 
and for lawful authority. Thinking men and women realize that 
liberty depends upon law, and that without law, and respect for the 
law, Ihere can be no liberty. 



LESSONS IN AMERICANISM 

“Le/ us rescue the larv from the realm of master}) and superstition* 

(By Martin J. Wade) 

THE CHILD MUST BE TRAINED FOR CITIZENSHIP 

Every day it is becoming more apparent that if this Republic is 
to endure, something must be done to inspire a higher regard for 
law and for lawful authority. Thinking men and women realize 
that liberty depends upon law, and that without law, and respect 
for the law, there can be no liberty. We make our appeals for re¬ 
spect for the law, but it is difficult to talk to people about a sub¬ 
ject they do not understand, and I have reached the conclusion that 
we are unfair and unjust to the people of the Nation, and to the 
generations which will be here in the years to come, in permitting 
our citizenship to remain in ignorance of this all important sub¬ 
ject; and I insist that the sole remedy lies in the education of our 
children in this field, in order that they may be qualified for citi¬ 
zenship when they must assume the responsibilities of life. 

Is it too much to ask that American citizens, when they reach the 
estate of manhood and womanhood, shall have at least a general 
knowledge of the details of the government of their country; that 
they should understand that this ‘‘is a government of laws and not 
of men;’’ that in this nation we have no such thing as government 
except as it exists in the law of the land; that they should know 
something of this law, not that they be lawyers, but that they 
should know sufficient of the law to inspire a respect for the law, 
to guard them against the danger of unwittingly violating the law, 
and to enable them to discern the danger point in business transac¬ 
tions where they should hesitate to depend upon their own judg¬ 
ment, and seek competent legal advice? Should they not know 
something of the Constitution of the United States and its source 
of power, and its binding nature, and its supreme place as the fun¬ 
damental law of the land? 

And above all, and most important of all, should they not Imow 

_not only know, but feel, the source of the law—the necessity for 

law—^the power of the law—the justice of the law—the mercy of 
the law; yea, the kindness of the law in dealing with the frailties of 
humanity; and should they not, as they start out on life’s highway. 



clothed with the responsibility of citizenship, know—nay, feel— 
that there is not a law in force in a State or in the Nation which 
the people cannot change within constitutional limitations; and also 
that there is not a constitutional limitation which cannot be modi¬ 
fied by the people if they so desire. Should they not feel that the laws 
are the people's laws,—not the lawyer’s laws, nor the Court’s laws; 
that they are intended for the guidance and protection of the peo¬ 
ple, and not as tools for knaves? Should they not realize fully that 
if there is an unjust law in force in State or Nation, the sin is 
upon their own heads and that they cannot shift the responsibility 
to others. 

They should not only feel that the laws are the laws of the people 
but they should also know that the enforcement of these laws rests 
with the people themselves. They should keenly realize the force 
of the fact, that this is a representative government, and that there 
is not to-day a man in a place of power in the United States who is 
not there by virtue of the wish of the American people, expressed 
directly by their written ballot, or indirectly through selection by 
some one who was himself selected by the people, by their express 
wish, as shown by their written ballot. 

And they should know that this plan of representation in gov¬ 
ernment does not apply alone to the legislative department or to 
the executive, but that it is peculiarly exemplified in the judicial 
department of government. The Judge holds his place only 
through a commission issued by the people directly or by their rep¬ 
resentative. But more directly representative of the people in the 
field of law enforcement, are the juries, grand and petit, composed 
of citizens selected by the people right from their own ranks; and 
the members of the grand jury and petit jury are just as much part 
of the judicial department of the government, as is the Judge upon 
the bench. Each is possessed of certain powers and must perform 
certain duties, and each is absolute in his own domain. 


fr^FATHERS, MOTHERS, CHILDREN, WORKMEN, AND EMPLOY- 
^ ERS OF LABOR—ALL LOYAL AMERICANS—will you not devote five 
minutes to-day, to an earnest study of some of the great truths of our Natinoal life? 



LESSONS IN AMERICANISM 

“Let us rescue the law from the realm of mystery and superstition” 


(By Martin J. Wade) 


AUTHORITY MUST REST SOMEWHERE 
“America has come out of the war renowned. It is 
more than a country: more than a continent—^more than 
a name to call upon for freedom and justice to men. It 
is an ideal; the apotheosis of all that is right. * * * 

“We realize fully that here in the United States we have 
not reached the acme of perfection, industrially, political¬ 
ly, judiciously, or socially. But that is not a reason why 
we should be lacking in appreciation of that which has 
been accomplished. Regardless of what a man’s philos¬ 
ophy may be, surely no reasonable man or woman now 
believes that we can get on very long, or very successfully, 
without some law and some authority vested somewhere.’’ 
* ❖ * 

“Democracy must be entrenched in the true freedom of 
the people, maintained by justice, law, and order.’’ 

—Samuel Gompers. 


“Authority must rest somewhere!’’ This is true, not only of a 
nation or a state, but it is true of every human organization. In 
the olden days authority in a nation was vested in a King or the 
Emperor, the Czar, the Kaiser—some absolute ruler of the people. 
These absolute rulers exercised the “authority” of the nation with¬ 
out consulting the people. The people had nothing to say about 
it—they had to submit to the orders or proclamations or decrees 
of their ruler—even to the extent of waging war—giving their 
lives on the battle field in a cause which they did not approve— 
which often they did not understand. Sometimes and in some na¬ 
tions there were laws, but these laws were made by the ruler; the 
people were not consulted. 

“Authority must rest somewhere.” No human organization can 
exist unless the “authority,” the power of the organization, be 
vested in some person, or some body of persons, or in all the per¬ 
sons who are members of the organization. In this country of ours 
the authority of the nation rests in all the people, and in the peo- 




pie alone. As Lincoln said, this is government by the people.^’ 
But you say, ‘‘What about the President, the Senators, Members 
of Congress, Judges, the Attorney General, Governors, Sheriffs, 
Mayors, Policemen, etc?” Bear this in mind my friend —^neither 
the President of the United States, Senators, Congressmen, Judges, 
Governors, nor any other officer in the United States, have any 
authority whatsoever except the authority conferred upon them by 
the people. 

But how and when did the people confer upon these persons the 
authority which they exercise for and in behalf of the people? In 
exactly the same way that the president (or other head, whatever 
his title may be) and the other officers of your fraternal society 
or your corporation, received their power to act for the society or 
the corporation—through the constitution and the by-laws of the 
society or the corporation. Perhaps the constitution and by-laws, 
were adopted long years before you became a member, but you 
have always known that you were bound by them the same as 
were the members who were present at the time of their adoption. 
You would not think of continuing as a member of the society or 
corporation without submitting to the constitution and by-laws. If 
you felt that they were not right and should not be obeyed, you 
would probably attempt to have them changed, and if the majority 
of the members voted against the amendments you urged, you 
would then make up your mind to submit, or you would terminate 
your membership. 

So as to the na.tion and the state ; the people by constitutions and 
laws, conferred certain powers and duties upon the officers (their 
servants), and whether or not you were a member of the organi¬ 
zation (the United States, or a State) when the constitution and 
the laws were adopted, you are bound by them. You have the 
power to make an effort to have the constitution or the laws 
changed, but if the majority of the people vote against you, you 
must make up your mind to obey them as they are, or quit the 
country. 


/f^FATHERS, MOTHERS. CHILDREN. WORKMEN. AND EMPLOY- 
ERS OF LABOR—ALL LOYAL AMERICANS—will you not devote five 
minutes to-day. to an earnest study of some of the great truths of our National life? 



LESSONS IN AMERICANISM 

**Let us rescue the law from the realm of mXfster}^ and superstition* 

(By Martin J. Wade) 

WHAT IS THIS THING THEY CALL “LAW?” 

A law is simply a rule of human conduct, enforceable by the 
state or nation. This is not a “book definition” but it is sufficient¬ 
ly definite for all practical purposes. 

The expression “the law” is often used in referring in a general 
way to the body of laws or general rules of restraint or obligation. 

Now it is all very simple. I do not of course mean that it is a 
simple matter to acquire and have a knowledge of all the separate 
laws or rules of conduct prescribed by Congress and the legisla¬ 
tures of the various states; but this is entirely unnecessary. No 
lawyer has any such knowledge. 

It is often said that a man is a good lawyer when he is so well 
qualified that “he knows where to find the law.” But the average 
citizen, even without a high school education, can understand what 
is the purpose of the law—^who creates the law—the necessity for 
law, and for obedience to law, and the protection which the law 
gives. 

Why, in truth every individual has been subject to “law” from 
childhood. When your mother in the long ago laid down the rule 
that you should not go in swimming except when accompanied by 
your father, she enacted a “law”—a rule of conduct; distin¬ 
guished, of course, from the law of the land by the fact that it 
would be enforced, not by the state or nation, but by your mother. 
When you sneaked home at dusk with your hair wet and other 
indications of a violation of the mother-imposed law, there was a 
trial and your mother acted as the court; she took the evidence, the 
facts and circumstances; heard your story—your alibi; found you 
guilty, and probably imposed the proper punishment. In this we 
have an illustration of just what the nation or the state does; en¬ 
acts a law; tries a person for its violation, and if guilty, admin¬ 
isters punishment. 

The rule of conduct which your mother imposed was a law of 
the household. 



When you went to school you found numerous laws of the school; 
rules of conduct. When you got into the Literary Society or upon 
the football team you found more laws—rules of conduct. When 
you joined some fraternity or society or fraternal organization, you 
found more rules of conduct—laws. You found early in life that 
submission to these rules of conduct was essential and that a vio¬ 
lation of them brought reprimand or punishment. You found, too, 
that your standing in the school or in the society or the organiza¬ 
tion which you joined, depended to a considerable extent upon 
your attitude toward the rules ^ or laws which you were expected to 
obey. You found, of course, that a person who wilfully and inten¬ 
tionally violated the rules or laws was fined or otherwise punished, 
and that finally, in some instances, expulsion came. 

So with the laws of your country, or your state. Your standing 
as a citizen depends upon your willingness to submit to the laws. 
Your violation of them results in perhaps mild punishment at first, 
but often terminates in removal from society by confinement be¬ 
hind prison bars. 

Laws are simply rules of human conduct fixing our duty in so¬ 
ciety—our duty to our fellow-members in organized society. The 
nation or the state (depending upon what law is violated) admin¬ 
isters punishment for their violation, and thus those, who will not 
obey the law out of respect for the law, are restrained from violat¬ 
ing it, by fear of punishment. 


/frfeFATHERS, MOTHERS. CHILDREN, WORKMEN. AND EMPLOY- 
ERS OF LABOR—ALL LOYAL AMERICANS—will you not devote five 
minutes to-day, to an earnest study of some of the great truths of our Natinoal life? 



LESSONS IN AMERICANISM 

“Le< us rescue the law from the realm of master}) and superstition* 
(By Martin J. Wade) 


THE HIGHEST ACHIEVEMENT OF CIVILIZATION 

We boast—and we have a right to boast—of the marvelous 
achievements of modern civilization. What is the most wonderful 
thing that civilization has brought to the human race? Is it our 
music, our literature, our sculpture, our architecture? No. Is it our 
accomplishments in science and invention? No. The most wonder¬ 
ful, the most marvelous thing which civilization has brought to the 
human race, is a method and a tribunal for settling the differences 
between men in an orderly and a peaceful way. Men are so consti¬ 
tuted that they will disagree. Perhaps the foundation of this human 
trait is selfishness; perhaps it is pride; perhaps it is the love—^nay 
the demand, for justice, which exists in every human heart. In the 
olden days the differences between men were settled by brute force. 
Stung by wrong, or by fancied wrong at the hands of a neighbor, the 
passion for revenge was aroused, and for centuries it was the recog¬ 
nized right of every man to wreak personal vengeance. This 
made the strong man the master. This was true, not only 
of individuals, but also of nations. War has been the only 
instrument known to settle international differences—war, and 
blood, and destruction, and death. We have not yet an established 
tribunal to settle international disputes but the great heart of human¬ 
ity is filled with the hope that out of our recent world war will come 
the solution—that an international court will be established which 
will forever end the inhuman monster which has deluged the soil 
of the world with the blood of the fair, and the brave, and the true. 

But with reference to disputes between individuals, after cen¬ 
turies of crude efforts the human race has found a way to protect 
right and to restrain and punish wrong; and this tribunal, now pro¬ 
vided in all civilized nations of the world, is called a Court. To de¬ 
fine and direct and restrain human action—to provide for the pun¬ 
ishment of wrong doers, we have rules of conduct, called laws. In 
this country these laws are enacted by the people. So that now, in¬ 
stead of grasping in angry passion, the battle axe, or the bludgeon 



of our ancestors, we turn to the law and to the courts for punish¬ 
ment of those who do us wrong. And let us remember that the law 
and the courts are the only things that stand between us and barbar¬ 
ism. When men ignore the courts and defy the law, in an attempt 
to impose punishment for wrong doing, they become savages. Mob 
rule is the rule of savage brutes who, for the time being, have turned 
back the hands of the great clock of time—who have torn down 
the only barriers which protect the weak against the strong—who 
have, in angry passion, swept away the greatest achievement of civ¬ 
ilization. 

Confidence in the law and in the courts, is the demand of this 
troubled hour, and the duty of every man and woman to aid in the 
maintenance of law and order in times of peace is just as sacred as 
was the duty to uphold the power and the dignity of the nation in' 
the dark days of war’s awful conflict. 


/f^FATHERS, MOTHERS. CHILDREN. WORKMEN. AND EMPLOY- 
ERS OF LABOR—ALL LOYAL AMERICANS—will you not devote five 
minutes to-day. to an earnest study of some of the great truths of our Natinoal life? 



LESSONS IN AMERICANISM 

“Lef us rescue the law from the realm of m^jster}) and superstition* 

(By Martin J. Wade) 

“THE INDIAN IS THE ONLY AMERICAN” 

John Fitzpatrick, the leader of the steel strike, says that the 
Indian is the only American. 

Some years ago, a man of bitter speech asserted that Boston was 
not a locality, but a state of mind. 

Americanism is not a matter of geography alone, nor is it a ques¬ 
tion of blood, .nor language, nor religion, nor color of the skin. 
It is not affected by the occupation, nor the social standing, nor 
the raiment. 

The man who toils in the grime of the city street, may be just 
as good an American as the man who glides by in his limousine. 

The man who was born under a foreign flag, but who came to 
this country seeking liberty and opportunity—who took the oath 
of allegiance to this government, and who is making an honest 
effort to do his full duty as a citizen—may be just as good an Ameri¬ 
can as is the man whose great, great, great, grandfather came over 
in the Mayflower. 

Americanism is more than national loyalty: America is more than a 
locality: Americanism is a creed. It is not tested by what is in 
the pocket, nor alone by what is in the head, but by what is in 
the heart. It is a matter of feeling, of devotion, of spirit, of love. 

The man who honestly believes that this country is “the land of 
the free and the home of the brave”—who loves this country be¬ 
cause of its liberty, and its justice, and its equality; the man whose 
soul throbs as he looks into the future and realizes, however hum¬ 
ble may be his home and his family, that his little children will, 
in the years to come, find this to be the land of opportunity, where 
real honest endeavor always wins—That man is an American. 


if^^FATHERS, MOTHERS, CHILDREN, WORKMEN, AND EMPLOY- 
ERS OF LABOR—ALL LOYAL AMERICANS—will you not devote five 
minutes to-day, to an earnest study of some of the great truths of our Natinoal life? 





LESSONS IN AMERICANISM 

“Let us rescue the law from the realm of mystery and superstition 
(By Martin J. Wade) 

THE LAND OF OPPORTUNITY 

He was called to the witness stand, and sworn. It was in a 
western court. He answered the questions of the lawyers in broken 
English. He was born in far-off Norway and came to America 
when a boy. He had never attended school to exceed two years in 
his life. He is now sixty three years old; wore very coarse clothes, 
and his shaggy hair and beard showed little regard for genteel ap¬ 
pearance. 

In the course of his testimony he stated that he was at that time 
farming eighteen quarter sections of land (2880 acres), all of which 
he owned free from debt. He also owned horses, cattle, swine, 
farm machinery, and other personal property, worth thousands of 
dollars, and I was told that he had large deposits in the bank. 

Nobody ever gave him a penny. He had earned every dollar ^s 
worth of property he possessed. He was not educated in the 
schools; but in the great school of life, experience and observation 
had trained his mind until he was regarded as a shrewd, safe man of 
business. He was a pioneer in his state. He went there in a 
prairie schooner” alone, when he was a young man. It took cour¬ 
age—it took faith—it required the spirit of self-denial, it demanded 
tenacity of purpose. He had all these. He never listened to the 
soap-box orator proclaiming that he (this young Norwegian far¬ 
mer) was a slave. He never read the Socialist papers which ap¬ 
pealed to him to ‘‘arise and throw off the chains.” He knew he 
was not a slave. He never heard the clank of chains. He was his 
own master, he breathed the tonic air of freedom, and even in the 
days of crop failure and disappointment he never dreamed of blam¬ 
ing the banker, the lav^er or the merchant in his home town for 
his misfortune. On the contrary, when the harvest failed on ac¬ 
count of blight or grasshoppers, he went to the local banker and 
the merchant, and the lawyer, and they, knowing something of his 
courage and his honesty, arranged for credit—sometimes for loans. 



and the spirit of gratitude entered his heart and lingers there yet 
though many years have passed since the last cent was paid. 

This humble, but now wealthy, son of a distant land is only one 
of millions who came to our shores in the long ago, poor and un¬ 
known, but who today, financially, politically and socially, stand 
high in the best communities in the land. 

And still there are those who sneer when we proclaim that» 
America is the land of opportunity for the poor, as well as for the 
rich. Many there be, who having made life a dismal failure, through 
indolence or dissipation, now curse the country as being dominated by 
the “idle rich,” in order to hide the infamy of their wasted lives. 


if^FATHERS, MOTHERS, CHILDREN, WORKMEN, AND EMPLOY- 
ERS OF LABOR—ALL LOYAL AMERICANS—will you not devote five 
minutes to-day, to an earnest study of some of the great truths of our National life? 



LESSONS IN AMERICANISM 

** Lei us rescue the lavp from the realm of m}fster^ and superstition^ 
(By Martin J. Wade) 


“WE ARE AMERICANS.“ 

“Gentlemen, we will comply with the mandate of the court. We 
do it under protest. We are Americans. We cannot fight our gov¬ 
ernment. 7hat IS all. * —John L. Lewis. 

These words, by the acting president of the mine workers, ex¬ 
press the true spirit of Americanism. Perhaps you resent the ac¬ 
tion of Lewis in originally calling the strike. It may be that under 
all the circumstances the strike was unlawful and unwarranted. 
Perhaps you condemn the failure to at once revoke the strike or¬ 
der when the order of the Court was made. These are matters I 
will not discuss; but the final statement by Lewis rings true. They 
are words of submission to the mandate of the Court. The majesty 
and power of the law is recognized. 

It is not always easy to submit. The tendency of human nature 
is to “fight it out.^’ 

The great need of the present hour in America is the develop¬ 
ment of the capacity for submission to duly constituted authority. 
The spirit must be molded to submission when the voice of auth¬ 
ority is heard. The voice of legally constituted authority is the 
voice of the people, because in this country all authority comes from 
the people. 

And let it be clearly understood that submission in this case 
was not to Judge Anderson, nor to a mere order made by Judge 
Anderson. jSubmission was made to the law of the land, ex¬ 
pressed by Judge Anderson in the order made by him. Judge An¬ 
derson was but a mere instrument or agency, vested with the pow¬ 
er and burdened with the sworn duty of enforcing the law enacted 
by the people. 

The Court is the only tribunal in this country which has the pow¬ 
er to construe the law—to apply the law—to enforce the law. It 
is a tribunal furnished by the people—the sole tribunal—the sole 




power to which men can turn to assert their rights or redress their 
wrongs. Every order of a Court is (until modified or revoked) 
an expression of the authority of the people which must be respect¬ 
ed and obeyed by every citizen of the republic. 


(f^^FATHERS, MOTHERS. CHILDREN, WORKMEN, AND EMPLOY- 
ERS OF LABOR—ALL LOYAL AMERICANS—will you not devote five 
minutes to-day, to an earnest study of some of the great truths of our Natinoal life? 



LESSONS IN AMERICANISM 

“Lef us rescue the law from the realm of mastery and superstition 
(By Martin J. Wade) 

BUT ARE NOT ALL MEN BORN FREE? 

Well, that depends upon what you mean by freedom. If you mean 
by freedom that men born in organized society and living as mem¬ 
bers of society, can do anything they wish to do, just as the whim 
or the desire or as passion may dictate, then men in organized socie¬ 
ty are not “free’’. 

But this is not what is meant by the word freedom. The words 
“liberty” and “freedom” have no practical significance except as 
they relate to human conduct in organized society. 

Man is an absolutely free agent, so long, and only so long, as he 
remains in solitude, entirely segregated from his fellowmen and 
from the property and possessions of his fellowmen. Perhaps you 
can picture in your mind a savage out upon the plains, hundreds of 
miles from any other human being; thus situated he could mount 
his pony and ride like the wind in any direction—on and on, until 
exhausted; but if he did the same thing in any city or town in the 
United States he would be up before the court the next morning 
for violating some speed law. 

No, when a man abandons solitude and joins his fellowmen in or¬ 
ganized society he must adjust himself to his new relation. His con¬ 
duct no longer affects only himself; it affects his neighbor. The 
streets and the highways are for the use of all. Each person has 
the right to use them, but the use by each must be such that every 
other person shall have the same right to their use; and this com¬ 
munity use can only be possible when speed and conduct is under 
control, so as not to bring injury to another exercising the same 
right. 

So in all acts, each member of society must so conduct himself— 
must so use his own as not to interfere with equal conduct, and the 
same use of “his own” by every other individual. Each must yield 
some of his so called “natural rights”, his freedom of action, in main¬ 
taining his house, his barn, his fences, his drainage, his horses, his 
pigs, his fowl—everything that he has or uses. He must, to some 
extent, adjust his personal conduct and his raiment, and the conduct 
and rainment of his family, to the reasonable demands of his fellow- 




men, who axe all subject to the same rules of conduct—^to the samei 
restraint. 

But why do we need laws? 

The anarchist and other radicals want to abolish ail law. They 
claim that law is tyranny. No honest, sane, man, who thinks, will 
ever make any such claim. 

Is any man, not confined in an asylum, so lost to reason that he is 
willing to permit some thief to enter his home in the darkness of 
the night and to steal his watch or his money, or assault his wife or 
children? And what is to prevent such outrages except the law 
under which the thief can be arrested and brought to trial, and to 
confinement in the penitentiary ? But the blustering anarchist 
says:—VI will defend my own, I don’t ask the state for protection.’* 
But suppose the invader of your home and your rights is bigger than 
you are, more brutal—better equipped with murderous weapons, 
what then? Nonsense utter nonsense, no sane man wants to go 
back to the rule of brute force, under which the strongest was the 
master and the weak his slaves. 

And yet, nothing stands between the rule of brute force and the 
rule of right and justice except the law and the courts. Loud-voiced 
visionaries teach that each man, woman and child, is a free agent, 
and that every law enacted by society (the people) is an invasion of 
the liberty of the individual. 

Shall we be blind and deaf to the lessons taught by the experi¬ 
ence of the human race through centuries of struggle? Humanity 
started out in the long ago without laws, except the laws of nature— 
the moral precepts which are planted deep in every human heart. 
But unfortunately it soon appeared that some men refused to be 
bound by moral precepts. Selfishness and passion and greed, in 
many instances, swept aside every restraint, and the weak and un¬ 
protected became the easy prey of the brutal strong. It has taken 
thousands of years and oceans of blood, shed in resisting wrong, to 
develop our present complete system of administering justice, and 
the man or the woman who would now ruthlessly tear down this 
greatest achievement of civilization is an enemy to mankind. Nay, 
the man or woman who would weaken the faith of the people in 
the law and in the courts, is taking away the only hope of the weak 
and the oppressed for justice in this world. 


/fy:S=FATHERS, MOTHERS, CHILDREN, WORKMEN, AND EMPLOY- 
ERS OF LABOR—ALL LOYAL AMERICANS—will you not devote five 
minutes to-day, to an earnest study of some of the great truths of our Natinoal life? 



LESSONS IN AMERICANISM 

“Le/ us rescue the law from the realm of m}^ster}) and superstition* 

(By Martin J. Wade) 

WHO FIXES THE LIMITS UPON HUMAN CONDUCT? 

In this country, the people themselves. That’s the glorious thing 
about living in a democracy like the United States. We have no 
Kaiser, King, or Sultan to tell us what to do or what not to do; the 
people themselves place the limit upon their own conduct, and change 
such limits from time to time as conditions or ideas may change. 
And herein are the rights and liberties of the people sacredly 
guarded. 

The rules of restraint or direction prescribed by the people are 
called laws; the hateful, tyrannical laws”, which are denounced 
by the soap-box orator, and in the anarchist and socialist publica¬ 
tions. You can readily see how helpless we would all be if we did 
not have these laws to guide us, and to restrain those who would 
wrongfully impose upon us. 

Even if every individual tried to do right, laws w^ould be abso¬ 
lutely necessary. Honest, sincere men, differ very much as to what 
is ''right”; and even if no man in the community did what was 
morally wrong, see the confusion which would exist. Suppose 
two men going in opposite directions, thought it was right to 
drive on the same side of the street. Suppose one man thought it 
right to have an unfenced garden, and his neighbor thought his 
chickens should run at large? Suppose your neighbor thought it 
was right to chastise your boy? What a mass of confusion and dis¬ 
order a community would be in, if there were no restraint upon a 
man’s activities, except his own whims or desires. 

Perhaps you may be a little aggravated some morning, when a 
man comes to the door and orders you to clean your sidewalk, or 
to make disposal of your garbage, or to restrain your chickens. 
We seem to have a natural tendency to resent interference in our 
affairs. We don’t like to "take orders.” But always bear this in 
mind: No man in this country has any right to give you orders 
except as he speaks with the authority of law. "This is a nation 
of law and not of men.” This truth cannot be too often repeated. 



No one can give you “orders” in this country unless he is in author¬ 
ity as agent of the people, speaking for the people, endeavoring to 
enforce some la,w enacted by the people. This is true of the village 
constable. It is true of the judges of every court. It is true of the 
president of the United States. 


(f^FATHERS, MOTHERS. CHILDREN, WORKMEN. AND EMPLOY- 
ERS OF LABOR—ALL LOYAL AMERICANS—will you not devote five 
minutes to-day, to an earnest study of some of the great truths of our Natinoal life? 




LESSONS JN AMERICANISM 

“Lei us rescue the lax» from the realm of master}) and superstition 

(By Martin J. Wade) 


“THE BIRTH OF THE NATION” 

You don’t know much about this matter of government? You 
can’t understand it at all? Well, it’s all very simple if we only get 
right down to elementary principles—if we only “begin at the be¬ 
ginning.” Perhaps you are a Woodman, or an Odd Fellow, or a 
Mason, or a Knight of Columbus—Member of the American Federa¬ 
tion of Labor, or the Eastern Star, or the P. E. O.’s, or the Oratorical 
Society, or of the College or High School Fraternity, or some other 
fraternal society. 

Now let us go back a few years. Your society was not in existence. 
Where did it come from? One day, years ago, a few men or women, 
or boys or girls, met in, perhaps, the home or the office of one of the 
parties, and talked over the plan which perhaps had been suggested 
by one of the parties present. After discussion, it was decided to 
form an organization. Now what was the first step in perfecting the 
organization? The preparation of a written statement of the pur¬ 
poses and principles of the organization, which is usually called a 
constitution. When the constitution was completed (usually by a 
committee), all those about to become members of the organization, 
met and talked it over. Changes were probably made, and the con¬ 
stitution was finally adopted. Probably some voted against it, but 
those who did vote against it, recognized that they should be bound 
by the judgment and will of the majority. There was also, then or 
later, adopted, laws, or by-laws, as they are generally called, to gov¬ 
ern the conduct of the members in their relation to each other, and 
to the society. These by-laws have been amended from time to time 
ever since, and perhaps at all times, some of the members have be¬ 
lieved that the by-laws should be different, but they have submitted 
to the will of the majority. 

So with the United States. There was a time, not so long ago, 
(less than 150 years) when there was no such thing on earth. A 
comparatively few men (representing the people of the Colonies) 
decided to form a nation, and in the Constitutional Convention in 
1787, after months of discussion, the Constitution was adopted, and 





it was finally ratified by the people of the Colonies; and while many 
persons opposed some of the provisions of the Constitution, all sub¬ 
mitted to the will of the majority. 

Then rules of conduct, called laws (in your society by-laws), were 
adopted, and from time to time changed, and extended, as circum¬ 
stances seemed to demand. Many of these laws were opposed by 
a large number of the people, but in the nation, as in your society, 
the majority rules, and the minority submits to their judgment and 
their will. 

All very simple, is it not? No mystery about it, is there? 

In your fraternal society, you know there are two different classes 
of members (generally speaking), those who take an active interest 
in the affairs of the society, and those who do not. Probably less 
than fifty per cent of the members attend meetings or show any 
interest in the organization, except when there is a parade. 

So in this great fraternity, the United States of America, we have 
the active members, and those who are inactive— Yes, and those who 
are in revolt against the organization. 


/fy:S-FATHERS. MOTHERS. CHILDREN. WORKMEN. AND EMPLOY- 
ERS OF LABOR—ALL LOYAL AMERICANS—will you not devote five 
minutes to-day, to an earnest study of some of the great truths of our Natinoal life? 



LESSONS IN AMERICANISM 

**Let US rescue the law from the realm of m})ster\f and superstition* 

(By Martin J. Wade) 

THE MOB 

: :r. {' 1 ^ 

“New York, Nov. 9.—Sixty-three persons met death at the hands 
of mobs in the United States in the first ten months of 1919.” 


Women and men of America, let ns be frank with ourselves. How 
can we expect to curb anarchy in this country, while an average of 
more than six human beings per month are murdered by mob vio¬ 
lence— shot, and hanged, and burned? How can we ask respect for 
the constitution and the law when they are thus openly spumed, 
trampled upon— spit upon? What is the matter? Why this bloody 
slaughter of human beings—black and white? The Constitution of 
the United States expressly guarantees to every person accused of 
an infamous crime, a trial before a court, with a jury of the common 
people to pass upon the question of guilt or innocense. 

What is the matter? Is the Court too slow in bringing accused 
criminals to trial? Then enact a law, (you have full power to do it) 
providing that for certain offenses the accused shall be brought to 
trial forthwith. This has already been done in some states. Is the 
Judge too slow? Then elect a Judge who will fearlessly proceed as 
the law may direct. Is the jury selected from your neighbors un¬ 
trustworthy—^will they out of undue sympathy, acquit a guilty man? 
Then bring to bear the power of public opinion which demands that 
each citizen called to jury service shall fearlessly perform his duty, 
to the end that the guilty shall be punished, the innocent protected 
from punishment, and the law upheld. 

Is the penalty of the law too light to satisfy your craving foif 
revenge, which unfortunately stiU exists in the human heart? Then 
by legislation fix the penalty as severe as you wish. Let it be death 
if you desire, but let it be death imposed in an orderly way, under 
the constitution and the law of the land. 

Remember that the guarantees of the Constitution were provided 
not alone for the poor victim which you may be chasing through the 




forest and the swamp tonight. Remember that tomorrow it may be 
yourself or your son who may be suspected of a crime; then you 
will thank God for the Constitution which may be your shield against 
the mad passion of brutal men crying for your blood. This country 
is cursed with a lot of people who sneer at the law—^who spurn 
courts, until they, themselves, are charged with some offense, and 
then they promptly call upon the Constitution and the law for 
protection. 

.The mob is sowing he seed of national destruction. 


ifrfeFATHERS, MOTHERS, CHILDREN, WORKMEN, AND EMPLOY- 
ERS OF LABOR—ALL LOYAL AMERICANS—will you not devote five 
minutes to-day, to an earnest study of some of the great truths of our Natinoal life? 



LESSONS IN AMERICANISM 

“Le/ us rescue the lar]> from the realm of m\^ter\f and superstition* 

(By Martin J. Wade) 

HIRE A KING 

If you have not time to attend to the business of helping to run 
this government, hire a king. I have no doubt if you will advertise 
for a ruler you will have many replies. Since the world war many 
kings are out of a job—they will work at a low salary to start with. 

If you hire a king, you can then forget about problems of govern¬ 
ment; you will not have to determine public questions—your king 
will do it for you. He will not intrude upon your bridge game, nor 
call you from j^our box at the opera to consult you about a new law 
to be enacted. He will attend to all that himself. All you will have 
to do is to obey the law which he proclaims. If some day you make 
a protest, you will be hanged for treason, as in the good old days 
before government by the people’’ was dreamed of in the world. 

Yes, hire a king. Then you will not be required to spend an hour 
every two years going to the polls to vote; you will not be asked to 
go to a hall two or three times during a campaign to hear a discussion 
of the men and the measures to be voted for on election day. 

Hire a king, and you will be relieved of the embarrassment of 
denouncing the men who now, under official obligation, fix the 
amount of your taxes. The king will attend to all that. 

Hire a king, and let him do all your political thinking for you. 
True, millions may be required to build suitable palaces, and he will 
probably need a full set of crown jewels; but you may have a chance 
some day to gaze upon the splendor of the royal household, and if 
you are very liberal, you may have the honor late in life of being 
presented at court. 

Hire a king, and leave to your children a heritage of revolt and 
revolution, of clashing swords, of roaring cannon, of bloody battle¬ 
fields, and of death; because though you now show little interest in 
self-government by the people, your children, or your children’s 
children, will rise up and break the chains of kingly power, and 
establish again “a government of the people, by the people and for 
the people, ’ ’ even as your forefathers did in the long ago. 

Hire a king! 



LESSONS IN AMERICANISM 

“Lef us rescue the larv from the realm of m^ster^ and superstition" 

(By Martin J. Wade) 

EMMA GOLDMAN WANTS TO STAY IN AMERICA 

^^Ernma Goldman, who for thirty years has preached anarchy, 
which is absence of courts and government, and restraint, impetu¬ 
ously exclaims that she will fight deportation in all the Courts.’^— 
Chicago Tribune. 

Emma Goldman wants to stay in America. She has hated Amer¬ 
ica. She hates it yet. She has denounced our government in nearly 
every state in the Union. She has spurned our law, defied the courts, 
and by her word, and by her conduct, she has violated every prin¬ 
ciple of decency and morality. She has shown her contempt for 
everything vital to Christian civilization. But notwithstanding aU 
this, she wants to stay in America. She has for over thirty years 
tried to tear down the stars and stripes, and to fiing to the breeze 
the red rag of anarchy. She has not succeeded. She has been ar¬ 
rested time after time. She has been convicted. She has looked out 
between prison bars. She has just been released from the Federal 
Prison. But she is still a rebel. A rebel not only against this nation 
and its laws, but a rebel against all authority. She wants no re¬ 
straint. She wants the passions to be free. In “seeking the larger 
freedom'’ of which she prates, she would destroy the only thing 
which insures any freedom—^the law. 

And yet she wants to stay in America. She wants to continue her 
campaign of pollution. 

And she is going to appeal to the Courts to protect her against the 
order of the immigration officials. To the courts which she has 
spurned, defied and spit upon. Yes, and she will point to the guar¬ 
antees of the Constitution as her shield—the Constitution which she 
has trampled upon—the Constitution “made by the ruling class”— 
“made by the mastersthe constitution of the rich.” 

Strange is it not, that the thousands who, like Goldman, detest 
America, and scorn our institutions, still seek shelter under our flag. 

/t:^FATHERS. MOTHERS, CHILDREN, WORKMEN, AND EMPLOY- 

ERS OF LABOR—ALL LOYAL AMERICANS—^will you not devote five 

minutes to-day, to an earnest study of some of the great truths of our Natinoal life? 




LESSONS IN AMERICANISM 

**Let us rescue the law from the realm of m\^ster^ and superstition * 
(By Martin J. Wade) 


THE HIGHEST EXPRESSION OF PATRIOTISM 

We talk a great deal about patriotism. The Fourth of July ora¬ 
tor fairly bubbles patriotism. In the war days we glorified the 
patriot—the unpatriotic trembled as we uttered our denunciation. 
And yet there are so many who have never fully grasped the mean¬ 
ing of the word ‘ ‘ patriotism. ^ ^ It is time that we should know its 
real significance. We must not assume that the baring of the head 
as the flag is carried by is sufficient proof of patriotic feeling. It is 
fine to see the audience arise when the band plays ^^The Star Spangled 
Banner.*^ The dollars eagerly contributed to our country in the 
dark days of battle were convincing proof that patriotism dwelt in 
the heart; but the highest, most convincing expression of patriotism 
is willing submission to legally constituted authority. This is true 
in the dark hour of war, it is true in the sunlit days of peace. When 
President Wilson called for troops—^when Congress called the boys 
to register for service— the fathers and the mothers, and the sons of 
America listened. They heard not the voice of mere men, the ser¬ 
vants of the people, but they heard the voice of their country in her 
bitter trial. They forgot the untilled field and the deserted counter 
and the silent mine. With a mother’s tears still shining upon the 
cheek, and with the strength and courage of a father’s blessing, the 
boys of America caught step with the drum beat and followed the 
flag. The President spoke, and Congress spoke, but what was heard 
wa5 the voice of authority —^the voice of the people spoken through 
the medium of expression provided by the people in their Constitu¬ 
tion and in their laws. 

In peaceful days, as in the days of war, the voice of authority is 
heard in the Constitution and in the law of the land. And the tru^ 
patriot is the man who bows his head in humble submission and 
obeys the voice of authority, even though the action prescribed may 
be contrary to his judgment and to his will. The true patriot knows! 
that in a democracy the majority rules, and when the majority have! 
spoken, those in the minority will, if they are real patriots, yield to! 
the will of the majority. They will humbly submit to legally consti-S 
tuted authority—They will obey the law. ^ 



LESSONS IN AMERICANISM 

“Lef us rescue the law from the realm of m^ster^ and superstition* 

(By Martin J. Wade) 

JUSTICE TEMPERED WITH MERCY 

He stood before the Court. He was a boy of about fifteen years of 
age. His hand trembled, and tears glistened upon his eye-lashes, 
ready to fall. 

His mother sat in the court room. Her face was white, her head 
was bowed, and her heart ached. She had not slept much for several 
nights. When she did sleep she saw prison bars. In behind the bars 
she saw the form of her boy—the boy now before the court. 

The boy^s father was also there. He wore plain clothes. His 
hands were calloused. He was a switchman on a local railway. His 
face was stern. He had never been in court before. His was a hard 
working, earnest, honest life. He had read much of socialist and 
other radical literature. He was not an agitator, but he firmly be¬ 
lieved that the rich made the laws of the country, that the rich were 
the ruling class.That the courts were the *Hools’^ of the ^‘ruling 
classes,’^ and that the poor had no chance for justice. His boy was 
poor. He was charged with a grave crime. The grim look upon the 
father’s face clearly manifested an utter lack of hope for either 
mercy or justice. 

When the Judge appeared and ascended the bench, the father 
looked upon him as an enemy. The boy and the mother shared this 
feeling. It reflected the atmosphere in which the family lived. The boy 
pleaded guilty to stealing an automobile. In trembling tones he told 
the Judge how he was returning from work, and how the temptation 
came to him to take a car which was standing in front of a ‘^rich 
man’s house.” How he yielded, took the car and fled with it to a 
distant city and tried to sell it, and was arrested. It was his first 
offense, and with tears flowing down his cheeks, he promised that 
he would never violate the law again. The highest penalty fixed by 
the law for the offense was five years in the penitentiary. While 
the eyes of the father and mother were fixed upon the floor, they 
could plainly see the door of the penitentiary closing upon their 
son—^the light of his life extinguished. 



The Judge spoke, but not in the stern voice of authority. His 
voice was gentle. He told the boy how sorry he was to see him 
before the court; how he hated to send a boy to prison for his first 
offense. He warned the boy that he was ‘^at the parting of the 
ways ’'—the ways, one of which led to a life of honest and decent en¬ 
deavor—the other, the way which led to a life of crime and degra¬ 
dation. He implored the boy to make choice of the right way. He 
said that the law is not vindictive, and that severe penalties are 
not inflicted except where necessary to protect society and the mem¬ 
bers of society from those who are in rebellion against the rules of 
society. He tried to impress the boy with the fact that the object 
of punishment is first, to reform the wrong-doer, and second, to 
furnish an example to serve as a restraint upon others who might 
be tempted to commit crime; and he gladdened the hearts of the 
prisoner and his mother and his father when he imposed only a fine, 
and made it payable in installments, so that it might be paid with¬ 
out imposing too much of a burden upon the boy or upon his parents. 

He gave the boy another chance. 

That night the boy, and his mother and his fa.ther, in the quiet of 
their liumble home, thanked God, that despite the falsehood and the 
malice of the socialist and the anarchist, America is the land of jus¬ 
tice for the poor as well as for the rich, and that the courts of the/ 
country, in a proper case, temper justice with mercy. 


(f^:feFATHERS, MOTHERS, CHILDREN, WORKMEN, AND EMPLOY- 
ERS OF LABOR—ALL LOYAL AMERICANS—will you not devote five 
minutes to-day, to an earnest study of some of the great truths of our Natinoal life? 



LESSONS IN AMERICANISM 

**Let us rescue the /an? from the realm of my^ster^ and superstition* 

(By Martin J. Wade) 

‘‘I NEVER MADE A LAW IN MY LIFE’^ 

That is true. No one man can alone make a law, not even if he is 
a member of Congress or a member of the legislature. And yet the 
people majie the laws—all the laws. If you could make a law, or if 
any other one man could make a law America would not be a dem¬ 
ocracy—it would be an autocracy. 

But you have had your share in making all the laws which have 
been enacted since you became a qualified voter. You have had a 
part in all law making even if you are one of those sterile Americans 
who have not had time to go to the polls on election day. 

You never made a law, and you probably did not build your dwell¬ 
ing house. But you gave it thought, you formed plans, you em¬ 
ployed an architect, and a mason, and a carpenter, and a plumber, 
and they constructed the building. They constructed it as your 
agents. They carried out your plans. You consulted with them. 
You gave orders, and in the end you (through your agents) had 
your completed dwelling. The people of this country have the 
power to make the laws—all the laws of both state and nation. 
But of course it is manifest that it is impossible to have all the peo¬ 
ple assemble at Washington, or at the capital of your State, vote 
directly upon proposed legislation. So they do the only practical 
thing—^they select, by their votes, agents to go to Washington and 
to the State Capitol to vote their convictions and their wishes; to 
carry out their plans in law making. You are one of the people and 
these men are just as much your agents as were the men who built 
your dwelling. You are present in the legislative halls by repre¬ 
sentation. It may be that the representative in Congress or in the 
legislature from your district is not your personal choice. Perhaps 
you voted against him. But this is a government of majorities, and 
when the majority of the voters of your district have selected a rep¬ 
resentative, he is your representative—the agent of the whole peo¬ 
ple. Possibly he may not carry out the will of the people who 



elected him; if not, they will defeat him at the next election and se¬ 
lect another agent in his place. Thus we have a representative 
democracy. Thus is the sentiment of the people crystallized into 
law. Thus are laws created, and from time to time changed in a 
steady advance to complete justice for all. 


/fpg=FATHERS. MOTHERS. CHILDREN. WORKMEN. AND EMPLOY- 
ERS OF LABOR—ALL LOYAL AMERICANS—will you not devote five 
minutes to-day, to an earnest study of some of the great truths of our Natinoal life? 



LESSONS IN AMERICANISM 

**Let us rescue the law from the realm of m\fster}f and superstition* 

(By Martin J. Wade) 

THE DREAM OF THE FATHERS OF THE REPUBLIC 

The problem of human government has existed throughout all 
the ages since mankind first started out upon the great highway of 
life. The greatest problem men have ever been called upon to solve, 
is ‘*how they might live together in communities without cutting each 
others throats.’’ 

As we look at the warring world to-day, we are reminded that the 
history of the world is a long, sad story of war and bloodshed and 
death. That the path which humanity has traveled stretches back 
into the dim distance, a long gleaming line of white human bones; 
that the fiowers and the trees and shrubs along the way have been 
nurtured by the red blood that fiowed from human hearts. All over 
the world the battle has waged; away down in Egypt where the Nile 
scatters her riches; upon the banks of the Tiber, which for centuries 
refiected the majesty of Rome; upon the heights above the castle- 
crowned Rhine; on the banks of the peaceful Thames; and upon the 
prairies that sweep back from the Father of Waters men have fought 
and died. In the field and in the forest, by the sweet running brook, 
and upon the burning sands, in the mountain pass and in the stony 
streets of the populous city; within the chancel rail of holy churches 
and at the dark entrance to the Bastile—^in all these places, and in 
a thousand more, the hand of the oppressed has been lifted against 
the oppressor, the right that God gave to men to be free hag 
struggled with the power which might has given, and, alas, so often 
might has triumphed, and the slave, sick at heart, has been scourged 
to his dungeon. On a thousand hillsides burning fagots have con¬ 
sumed men who dared to dream of freedom, and in dark and slimy 
prison cells where God’s sunlight seldom entered, men have rotted 
with clanking chains upon their limbs, because they dared to ask for 
the rights of freemen. In the olden days force ruled the world, 
the king, the crown, the scepter, were the insignia of power. All 
about were the instruments of force, the cannon, the moated castle, 
the marching armies of the king. 



And so it was until a new nation was born, a nation founded by 
exiles who were fleeing from oppression, from unrestrained power; 
exiles who dreamed of establishing a nation—exiles with the hearts 
and the hands with which to build it—a nation where there would 
be no masters and no slaves, where the citizen would rule and not 
the soldier, where the home and school and not the castle, woulc^ 
stand as the citadel of the nation; where the steel would at last be 
molded into plow shares and not into swords; where instead of mar¬ 
tial music, the song of the plowboy and the hum of the spinning 
wheel would greet the ear; where lust for power would be dethroned 
and brute force strangled; where love would rule and not brutality; 
where justice and not vengeance, would be the end of judicial in¬ 
vestigation; where the rights of men to live and to enjoy the fruits 
of their labor would be recognized. This was the dream of the fath- j 
ers of the Republic as they laid the foundation in the long ago. 


/^rs-FATHERS, MOTHERS, CHILDREN, WORKMEN, AND EMPLOY- 
^ ERS OF LABOR—ALL LOYAL AMERICANS—will you not devote five 
minutes to-day, to an earnest study of some of the great truths of our Natinoal life? 



LESSONS JN AMERICANISM 

“Lei us rescue the larv from the realm of m\;ster^ and superstition* 

(By Martin J. Wade) 

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

The hopes of the fathers of the Republic never would have been 
realized, had it not been for the recognition of that great Constitu¬ 
tional principle announced by Chief Justice Marshall, that in this 
nation the law is supreme; not supreme alone with the citizen, but 
supreme with the nation and with the States that compose the na¬ 
tion; not supreme with the humble toiler, but supreme with the 
richest and the strongest; not supreme in theory, but supreme in 
truth and in fact. 

And this great principle of the supremacy of the law finds its or¬ 
igin in that immortal document—the Constitution of the United 
States. Few there are in these modern days who fully appreciate the 
wonderful blessings of a written Constitution which gives recog¬ 
nition to the fundamental natural rights of man, and which provides 
guarantees against the invasion of these rights. 

Gladstone, the eminent statesman, said: 

*^The American Constitution is the most wonderful work ever 
struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man.’’ 

An eminent lawyer has said—^‘It has been the priceless adjunct 
of free government; the mighty shield of the rights and liberties of 
the citizen. It has been many times invoked to save him from illegal 
punishment, and save his property from the greed of unscrupulous 
enemies, and to save his political right from the unbridled license of 
victorious political' opponents controlling legislative bodies; nor 
does it sleep except as a sword, dedicated to a righteous 
cause, sleeps in its scabbard. ’ ’ 

Horace Binney says— 

'*What were the States before the Union? The hope of their 
enemies, the fear of their friends, and arrested only by the Constitu¬ 
tion from becoming the shame of the world.” 

Sir Henry Maine remarks— 

'Ht isn’t at all easy to bring home to the men of the present day, 
how low the credit of the Republic had sunk before the establish- 



I That there is no man so lowly, that he cannot point to the Con- 
; stitution as his shield from the acts of the tyrant—that there is no 
home so humble that it cannot draw about it the sacred circle of the 

1 Constitution, and defy all the force of the world. 

iv:^FATHERS. MOTHERS, CHILDREN, WORKMEN, AND EMPLOY- 
ERS OF LABOR—ALL LOYAL AMERICANS—will you not devote five 
minutes to-day, to an earnest study of some of the great truths of our Natlnoal life? 



LESSONS IN AMERICANISM 

“Lef us rescue the larv from the realm of m^ster^ and superstition* 

(By Martin J. Wade) 

“GOVERNMENT BY THE PEOPLE“ 

It was naturalization day. The court room was crowded with the 
sons of many lands, eager to take the oath of allegiance to the United 
States. Many of them had attended night school in an endeavor to 
qualify themselves for citizenship. No person can now be admitted 
to citizenship until he understands something definite as to our gov¬ 
ernment—until he has developed a feeling of faith and confidence 
in American institutions. 

One of the applicants told the Court that he had studied the Con¬ 
stitution and the Declaration of Independence, and that he knew 
the names of all of the Presidents from Washington to Wilson. The 
Judge asked him if he knew what President Lincoln meant when in 
his Gettysburg address he referred to this government as being a 
“government by the people/' The candidate for citizenship did not 
know. 

The Judge said; 

“I am glad to know that you have studied the Constitution and 
the Declaration of Independence. But even if a man can repeat 
from memory every word of the Constitution, and of the Declara¬ 
tion of Independence; unless he knows and feels that this is a gov¬ 
ernment by all the people, he is not qualified for citizenship. The 
man or woman who does not know that in this country the people 
rule, is not fit for citizenship. 

“The man or woman who does not realize that there is not a law, 
state or national, nor a provision of any Constitution which the 
people cannot change if they want to, is not fit for citizenship. 

“The man or woman who feels that a few hundred millionaires 
control the balance of our one hundred and ten million people, is 
not fit for citizenship. 

“The man or woman who believes that all the laws are made upon 
the demand of the ‘favored class,' or of ‘special interests' is not 
qualified for citizenship in a country where knowledge is free— 
where ignorance is a sin. 



“There axe abuses. We have room for reforms of the right kind, 
but if our more than thirty million voters will get together in sup¬ 
port of any policy, or of any measure, what power is there to stop 
them? 

“The only obstacle to achievement by the people, are the people 
themselves, who waste their power for good by gross inattention to 
public affairs; by wilful ignorance of the needs of themselves, of 
their neighbors, and of their country, and by unreasoning adherence 
to political parties, loyalty to which should always be subordinate to 
loyalty to country. 

“My friend, unless you feel in your heart that you have come to a 
country where the people are their own masters—^where the will of 
the people is supreme—you are ignorant of the most vital truth of 
the creed of America. “ 


/f^FATHERS, MOTHERS. CHILDREN. WORKMEN. AND EMPLOY- 
ERS OF LABOR—ALL LOYAL AMERICANS—will you not devote five 
minutes to-day, to an earnest study of some of the great truths of our Natinoal life? 



LESSONS IN AMERICANISM 

** Let US rescue the lam from the realm of master}) and superstition* 

(By Martin J. Wade) 

*‘TO ERR IS HUMAN” 

His hair was white. He had spent some twenty odd years upon 
the bench. Here is what he said: 

”I was young then. I confess that my heart was much more ten¬ 
der than it is now. Years of experience have taught me much. 

“One morning a young man was brought before the court to an¬ 
swer to a charge of burglary. He admitted his guilt. He was a 
light haired innocent looking boy. I felt that he was about twenty- 
two years old. He claimed to be nineteen. He appeared under the 
name of John Stewart. I asked him if this was his true name, he 
admitted it was not, but he stated, as the tears came to his eyes, that 
his mother was waiting for him back in his New England home 
which he had left Ho see the world’ but a few weeks before. That 
he would rather die than have her know that he had committed a 
crime. That he was willing to suffer the punishment which the 
court would impose. That he would then return to his mother, his 
lesson learned; and that he never again would break the law. He 
protested that he never had been arrested before, and that only a 
desire to get money to return to his home had tempted him to com¬ 
mit the crime. 

“I confess that I was deeply touched by his story. In fact I had 
difficulty in keeping back the tears while I admonished him to profit 
by this sad experience, and to lose no time in getting to his mother’s 
side just as soon as he was released from prison. I sentenced him 
to only six months in the penitentiary. The usual sentence for such 
an offense was two to three years. 

“The sheriff started with the prisoner to the penitentiary, and 
as they were riding in the day coach side by side, the prisoner hap¬ 
pened to elevate his feet, and the Sheriff noticed something peculiar 
about the sole of his right shoe. At the toe it appeared to be rough 
or uneven. The sheriff slipped the handcuffs upon the prisoner, 
who up to that time was without irons, and probing with his knife 
blade he felt metal, and soon drew forth a narrow steel saw about 




eight inches long, which the Sheriff recognized as being made for 
sawing prison bars. 

“The prisoner smiled grimly as he looked out of the window, and 
thereafter he refused to talk. When the Sheriff delivered the pris¬ 
oner to the warden of the penitentiary, the warden looked at him 
in surprise, and said: ^Hello Bill, are you back again? Why it’s 
only three weeks since you finished your three year term here; I 
thought that would be a lesson.’ 

“The warden signed a receipt for the prisoner, delivered it to the 
Sheriff, who departed. The big iron gate swung on its hinges, the 
lock snapped, and ‘John Stewart’ smiled.” 

Courts sometimes err: Judges are only human. Thank God! 
where they do make a mistake it is usually upon the side of mercy. 


(fv^^FATHERS, MOTHERS. CHILDREN. WORKMEN, AND EMPLOY- 
^ ERS OF LABOR—ALL LOYAL AMERICANS—will you not devote five 
minutes to-day, to an earnest study of sOTie of the great truths of our Natinoal life? 




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